Labor failed tourism sector

Hotels industry stalwart
David Baffsky
has slammed the former NSW government for allowing the Sydney Convention and Exhibition Centre to become run down, describing it as “a tragedy".

The honorary chair of hotels group Accor Asia Pacific said the Labor government’s failure to maintain the facility had just about “destroyed business tourism in Sydney" and was a “classic example of what not to do".

In a wide-ranging interview at the Australia, New Zealand and Pacific Hotel Industry Conference in Sydney yesterday, Mr Baffsky encouraged Australian governments to create opportunities for the tourism sector, while allowing the market to determine the end product.

The former member of the Singapore International Advisory Council for Tourism applauded the Singapore government’s approach to the sector.

While the government was not “backward in coming forward" about how it felt a project should proceed, it was ultimately left to the market to determine how it was executed.

Mr Baffsky said that in Australia, the tourism industry was not adequately recognised for its multiplier effect in the economy. It was still a major export earner and employer.

Government support for the sector needed to include not only marketing and advertising spending but help in all facets of the sector where government could “make a tangible impact".

Mr Baffsky said this included measures such as the identification and release of sites for hotels, the speeding up of tourist visa processing and allowing greater airline access to Australian markets, noting that he did not understand why a passport was needed for travel between Australia and New Zealand.

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Mr Baffsky is a director of the Indigenous Land Corporation, which bought the Ayers Rock Resort for $300 million in what ANZPHIC named the Hotel Deal of the Year.

He said the success of the purchase would be judged not only on the financials but on the number of indigenous people employed and trained and the indigenous cultural experience offered.

He said many people wanted to create a tangible difference to indigenous disadvantage but, in many cases, they did not recognise the damage they were doing by simply “throwing money" at problems and leaving people disappointed.

Mr Baffsky, a former corporate lawyer who has been involved in property development and the hotels sector since the 1980s, and Gwee Lian Kheng, group chief executive of UOL and Pan Pacific Hotels, were yesterday named as inductees to the ANZPHIC Hotel Legends Hall of Fame.